ANNIE (PG)
★★★½
Most cinemas
Producers Will Smith and Jay-Z either breathe new life into an old franchise, or keeps the patient's life support going, with this the fifth big-screen outing for a character that started as a comic strip in Depression-era America.
Which of these opinions is the truest depends on where you stand on movie musicals.
The curmudgeonly, Grinch-like folk will find the flash, colour, exuberance and mugging that make up the ingredients for Will Gluck's Annie nauseating.
But humbug to them.
What has kept Annie the character chugging along for nearly a century is a sense of optimism – initially about the dreams of the lower classes in Depression era New York, and in this film through the winsome enthusiasm of the well-cast lead actor Quvenzhane Wallis.
Her Annie lives in the Queens New York foster home of Colleen Hannigan (Cameron Diaz), a former pop star turned bitter alcoholic. Annie and her fellow foster charges dream of a better life, and for Annie it is for her parents to turn up and reclaim her.
The chance for a better life, though maybe not the one she dreamed of, comes along in the form of New York City mayoral candidate and telco billionaire Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx) who literally crashes into the orphan on the street.
When a photo of the two causes a social media stir and starts driving Stacks' approval ratings up, Annie talks her way into a little quid-pro-quo deal where she poses adorably for photo opportunities and gets to move into his penthouse apartment, against the better judgment of his minder Grace (Rose Byrne) and campaign manager Guy (Bobby Cannavale).
This is a contemporised version that draws on much that came before it, including the Broadway play but especially John Huston's 1982 film. Gluck and Aline Brosh McKenna's screenplay serviceably updates the dialogue, without the kind of witty wordplay others may have used to put their mark on the project, but this is a family film and the work is in the visuals.
Gluck is a surprise choice behind the camera but brings the same sense of fun and panache we saw in his earlier films Easy A or Friends with Benefits.
What this version does have really going for it is the musical oversight of Aussie songstress Sia, who makes a brief cameo. She works her hit-making magic on the familiar musical numbers and compliments Greg Kurstin's fine production work.
Hard Knock Life is performed in Tap Dogs style adorably by the young cast, and Wallis does a fine job of the Broadway standard Tomorrow. Cameron Diaz talks her way through some numbers best forgotten.
Wallis is awesome, but I was equally impressed with Rose Byrne, singing and dancing, and showing once again she is a formidable talent.
